1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and, more particularly, to a communication apparatus having a remote monitoring function and a method therefor.
2. Related Background Art
A monitoring apparatus as such a communication apparatus is constituted by several video cameras, a synthesizer for performing analog synthesis of video obtained by the video cameras, and a device called a switcher capable of selection. Such apparatuses are mainly used in relatively small buildings and referred to as local monitoring systems. In contrast to the local monitoring systems, remote monitoring systems, which use digital networks such as LANs and ISDNs as video transmission lines instead of analog cables to allow great extension of transmission lines, have recently been developed.
The recently proposed monitoring systems include several types of systems which use IBM PC-compatibles (PCs) as monitoring terminals, and realize video display and system control by means of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The use of a GUI based on a computer for a monitoring apparatus allows an unskilled user to easily handle the apparatus.
Although a conventional system of this type uses a digital network as video transmission lines, the display position of each camera video strongly depends on the hardware of the system because analog display is performed on the monitor. For this reason, the display positions of camera video are permanently assigned to specific video display portions on the monitoring terminal upon installation of the system. Therefore, the observer as a user cannot arbitrarily arrange the video display positions to facilitate control of the system and cannot easily select a camera video to be displayed.